PA PA - Toni Sharpless, 29, Gladwyne, 23 Aug 2009

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The interesting note about Imbo/Petrone case is the fact that LE has publicly said they were looking into organized crime/paid hitman type situations and suspect that the truck had been taken apart and long gone. It is unusual for LE to make public statements like that regarding a pending missing persons case. I do still think it is likely they went off the road too but there are just enough tantalizing details that will keep us wondering until one or the other is proven.

Kemo makes a very good point about the pinging and the text message. That kinda serves as a starting point. We know up until she hit send on her text message she was fine so there is not much sense in going back from that point to look for her. I cannot recall know but what is the status of the phone now? Is it off, does it just ring, go directly to voicemail of what? I think the functionality of the phone could be telling. If it is turned off that would be a little strange considering she just texted her daughter and most women don't drive at night with their cell turned off. Certainly LE should be able to trace her movements using the pings from her phone. I know from reading about the Brittanee Drexel case that a phone will ping even if it is not in use but as long as it is turned on it will ping off of nearby towers.
 
IIRC the phone started going straight to voice mail just after the text to her daughter. Of course today is the first I heard that crystal tried to call her multiple times after getting out of the car and I don't recall her stating if the phone rang or went straight to voice mail at that point.
 
I don't know whether the family has an attorney or other advocate to help them. I certainly see no evidence that they do.

There are layers of problems. She was last seen in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County. She lived in West Brandywine Township, Chester County. The spot where she was last seen was near the City of Philadelphia, Philadelphia County. The river is the boundary between municipalities and counties.

If there is or was a way to bring in the State Police, I think that would help. the Chester County Detectives are very good, but I don't think they can investigate a disappearance that seems to have taken place outside of their turf. The Montgomery County folks don't give a rat's *advertiser censored* because it isn't "their" person.

I would recommend that the family get a politically connected attorney/spokesperson to quarterback a media blitz and investigation. I have recommendations (not me) who would fit the bill nicely. I know an ex-DA who would be perfect to bring this case to the top of the pile. Her husband is a retired detective and they could shake the trees real hard if retained.

Nothing is going to happen unless the family seizes control. It shouldn't be this way, but it appears to be the way it is.
 
Thank you for that information. Would it be too forward for you to contact them and inform them of the resources you know of? When putting the map together last week I was able to find their listing on anywho. I'm sure they'd appreciate any advice at this point. I read where they were setting up a fund to raise money for search efforts so I feel they haven't given up hope.
 
gaia227 said:
The interesting note about Imbo/Petrone case is the fact that LE has publicly said they were looking into organized crime/paid hitman type situations and suspect that the truck had been taken apart and long gone. It is unusual for LE to make public statements like that regarding a pending missing persons case. I do still think it is likely they went off the road too but there are just enough tantalizing details that will keep us wondering until one or the other is proven.

Kemo makes a very good point about the pinging and the text message. That kinda serves as a starting point. We know up until she hit send on her text message she was fine so there is not much sense in going back from that point to look for her. I cannot recall know but what is the status of the phone now? Is it off, does it just ring, go directly to voicemail of what? I think the functionality of the phone could be telling. If it is turned off that would be a little strange considering she just texted her daughter and most women don't drive at night with their cell turned off. Certainly LE should be able to trace her movements using the pings from her phone. I know from reading about the Brittanee Drexel case that a phone will ping even if it is not in use but as long as it is turned on it will ping off of nearby towers.
Click to expand...


You see, thats the thing, we're not sure if she sent that text or not... One could assume she was ok until that point, but you could also say the "text" was part of the cover up.

I think I read something about the cops saying her last text pinged around the road she was last seen by Crystal... which would probably back up her story. I highly doubt the suspects would be smart enough to take her cell phone to that area, then send the text just to throw off LE. So once again the question is "What happened next?"
 
It was my understanding that the text sent around 3 AM(2:57)came from Toni shortly before/after leaving the club in Philly. Toni and Crystal then went to Willie Green's house where they stayed until roughly 5 AM. The last call to Toni's phone was said to come in around this time and it was from Crystal. Is this info correct?
 
From the article posted in the above reply:

"After the 2:57 a.m. text message, the only other activity on Sharpless' cell phone were two calls from the friend at 4:53 a.m and 4:59 a.m., which went to voicemail, and a call from the sister of the friend at 6:44 a.m., which also went to voicemail."



This information indicates that the police should be able to track pings from her cell phone at least until 6:44AM... so the question is have they??
 
AJMorgan said:
From the article posted in the above reply:

"After the 2:57 a.m. text message, the only other activity on Sharpless' cell phone were two calls from the friend at 4:53 a.m and 4:59 a.m., which went to voicemail, and a call from the sister of the friend at 6:44 a.m., which also went to voicemail."



This information indicates that the police should be able to track pings from her cell phone at least until 6:44AM... so the question is have they??
Click to expand...

My recollection is that the phone records indicate that the three later calls went directly to voice mail because the phone was no longer working.
 
There is more to this story than is meeting the eye. There have been too many statement from Crystal that are off the wall and very inconsistant. Because of this I would have to believe that the LMP are taking everyones word just because stories jive. I learned that when Chrystal and Toni were supposidly asked to leave Willie Greens house people followed them to the car due to the argument over who was going to drive. The folks at that party have had plenty of time to tweek thier stories including Crystal especially since she was talking to Willie Greens brother after Toni went missing.
 
My understanding is (and somebody please correct me if I am wrong) that when a cell phone is "ON", even if no call is being made, the phone sends a "ping" every few seconds (does anyone exactly how frequently?). Any cell tower that picks up that "ping" relays that information to the provider of that cell phone so that the cell provider "knows" where to route any incoming call to that cell phone. Naturally this is all done through a system of computers, and no "human" pays any attention to it, but the information can be retrieved and, apparently, the approximate location of the phone can be ascertained at the time of each "ping". I do not know how long this information is retained, how quickly it can be retrieved and how difficult/expensive it is for a cell company to retrieve it. (Does anyone have any idea?). Once a phone is "turned off", battery runs out, or the phone malfunctions (or just the component of the phone that "pings"), there are no more "pings" and the phone is "lost" to the system". Any incoming calls will go direct to voice mail, which is retained by the cell phone provider, not in the device it’s self. Every cell phone has a "setting" where the owner can determine how many "rings" have to occur before a phone that is "on" will direct that call to voice mail. Mine is set at 4. It seems that even when a phone is turned "off", it takes at least 3 rings before it goes to voice mail, I never really know if no one is answering or if the phone is "off". Perhaps some users "know" what the clues are.

If my above understanding is essentially correct, we can assume that the "pings" ended when Toni was on the River Dr. area. Had they continued past there, it would make no sense to search the river there.

It seems unthinkable that a mother with a child at home would turn her phone "off". The only possible reason would be that Chrystal was calling her repeatedly and Toni didn't want to be bothered by the ringing she had no intention of answering. But how many times did Chrystal call her soon after Toni and her separated? The phone went off after Toni completed a text message, not after an answered call from Chrystal. I would think there was a good chance Toni would expect her daughter to reply to her message so why would she turn her phone off right after texting? If Toni didn't turn her phone "off", the only explanation would be that the battery ran out or it "malfunctioned". The likelihood of the battery running out or a spontaneous malfunction is low but not all together impossible. Chances are much greater that an accident occurred causing the phone to "break". A heavy impact, that might occur with an accident might do it. It is my understanding that phones generally "survive" accident and are frequently used to call them in. Exposure to water is something else again. That will "kill" a phone immediately.

All this leads me to conclude that it is most probable that she went into the river somewhere along River Dr. If the river has been searched thoroughly, and the car wasn't found, is it possible that it drifted downstream? This would be a function of the buoyancy of the car, the depth of the river and the current at the time. Is this possible? Otherwise we have some unlikely coincidences or a very well executed job of staging.

 
There is a dam a short distance from where the boat ramp is and it is doubtful that the car would go over it. There are so many things that are perplexing about this story.
 
I don't feel that the search of the river has been thorough. It sounds like they looked in the immediate area of the boat ramp and pulled out a few cars and quit.

I am perplexed as to why the Coast Guard has not been helping. There is a Coast Guard station in Philadelphia.
 
Sounds like the cellphone leads say the phone was not on/working soon after last seen. That the river at the boat ramp not toni's car. Is there something else maybe? or is this just a drunk driving accident, that when fall comes along and the leaves fall from the trees will be solved.
Lack of Media coverage is strange though.
 
NetworkingStar said:
Sounds like the cellphone leads say the phone was not on/working soon after last seen. That the river at the boat ramp not toni's car. Is there something else maybe? or is this just a drunk driving accident, that when fall comes along and the leaves fall from the trees will be solved.
Lack of Media coverage is strange though.
Click to expand...

I think that LE chalked it up to a drunk driving accident and thus no thorough questioning or search of Willie Green's property. IMO they gave up way too easy! I guess in Philly they have bigger fish to fry???
 
How many people would it take and who many people do you believe we could get together to design a search for Toni, after the folliage thins out a little more. I'm not interested in waiting until all the leaves are off the trees. The people would need to be willing to discuss different senarios and keep all out documentation so we can design a search that is worth everyones time and efforts. The objective would be to honestly determine that we have search everywhere that we could possible with the information that has been available. I have read some very interesting posts and believe if everyone puts their head together just maybe we will dicover a lead. I understand that we would have to come up with specific search areas of well designed maps, list of detailed questions to interrogate neighgors who might be willing to inform us of what happened out side in the backyard of Will Greens House as well as what happened out front of Will Greens house when Toni and Crystal began to argue about who would drive Toni's car. Folks remeber it is now 5AM in the morning someone had to have been up to hear and see what appeared to be happening. It's my understanding their was alot of commotion. Secondly, design maps that indicate areas that have been search so we could extend that search area. Is there any way to get a large group of voleenteers to put this search together. Thirdly, a list of all opened gas stations in specified radius, If Toni truley needed gas and most likely she needed cigeretts as well.
 
I live in the area and may be able to help with an organized search if you were able to get one together.
 
mid-night wonder said:
How many people would it take and who many people do you believe we could get together to design a search for Toni, after the folliage thins out a little more. I'm not interested in waiting until all the leaves are off the trees. The people would need to be willing to discuss different senarios and keep all out documentation so we can design a search that is worth everyones time and efforts. The objective would be to honestly determine that we have search everywhere that we could possible with the information that has been available. I have read some very interesting posts and believe if everyone puts their head together just maybe we will dicover a lead. I understand that we would have to come up with specific search areas of well designed maps, list of detailed questions to interrogate neighgors who might be willing to inform us of what happened out side in the backyard of Will Greens House as well as what happened out front of Will Greens house when Toni and Crystal began to argue about who would drive Toni's car. Folks remeber it is now 5AM in the morning someone had to have been up to hear and see what appeared to be happening. It's my understanding their was alot of commotion. Secondly, design maps that indicate areas that have been search so we could extend that search area. Is there any way to get a large group of voleenteers to put this search together. Thirdly, a list of all opened gas stations in specified radius, If Toni truley needed gas and most likely she needed cigeretts as well.
Click to expand...

It wasn't five. It was just about 3. Crystal tried to call later, but the calls went to voice mail. There was one sloppy article that said 5, but it was incorrect.

A radius of gas stations won't help. You need to look at the ones that are along or near her likely routes home. If you draw a radius, you would be looking at gas stations on the other side of the river that would take longer to get to.

I would think that if she had made it to a gas station, she would have used a credit card or ATM and there has been no activity.
 
As far as the Radius goes for the Gas Stations is somthing we can discuss after we research the area and discuss what we think would be the best way to attack this situation. Again we are going by what infromation Crystal has supplied. By the way the last text message was at 2:57 AM and that was supposedly when Toni and Crystal left the G lounge with Crystals friends she was to meet that night and ended up at Willie Greens house. Time they left Willie Greens was ~5:00AM. The times references 2diffent locations both girls supposedly visited together that evening.
 
5 AM is correct. The text the was sent to her daughter around 3 AM was sent by Toni after she left the Philly club enroute to Willie Green's home. Assuming it takes around 20 minutes from Center City to Gladwyne, she spent about 1 and a half hours at Willie's until she was asked to leave which would have been roughly 5 AM.

It is my understanding that Toni's friends have coordinated searches and will be in the future. Does anyone close to her post here?
 
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